ECCE PAPA!
Looking very good
Dr. Polisca is behind him, left. Does one of his fingers also look bandaged up? The resin cast seems neat!
Pope fractures wrist in a fall,
leaves hospital after six hours
by RACHEL DONADIO
July 17, 2009
ROME — Pope Benedict XVI fractured his right wrist in a fall Friday morning while on vacation in northern Italy, the Vatican said. He was released from the hospital after undergoing successful surgery.
Vatican officials were quick to diffuse any alarm over the first medical intervention known to the public since the 82-year-old became Pope in 2005.
“It’s nothing serious,” the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said in a telephone interview. He said doctors had ruled out that Benedict had been taken ill before falling.
[An Italian news report said the Pope had slipped accidentally, not because of dizziness or any medical reason. I hope they make sure all his indoor footwear have non-skid soles and non-skid runners on his bathroom fllor.]
Doctors operated on the Pope’s wrist for about 20 minutes, Reuters reported. Father Lombardi called the operation “not difficult.” He said that doctors had inserted pins to help the Pope’s wrist heal, using local anesthetic.
[The report does not make clear that the surgery was done without making any cuts at all - it makes it sound more involved than it was. But then, how do you report properly from Rome on something happening in Aosta?]
He added that the Pope would have to wear a cast for about a month. News photos showed Benedict leaving the clinic smiling and waving with his left hand.
In a statement released by the Vatican, the Pope’s private physician, Patrizio Polisca, said that Benedict was “in good condition.”
The Vatican said that the Pope had slipped overnight in his room in the chalet where he is staying in the mountainous Valle d’Aosta region.
Father Lombardi said that Mr. Polisca, who travels with the Pope, was in Val d’Aosta when the Pope fell and oversaw the local doctors who performed the operation.
In a statement, the Vatican said that Benedict was well enough to eat breakfast and celebrate Mass before being taken by car to the local hospital on Friday morning.
After meeting President Obama last Friday, the Pope arrived on Monday in northwest Italy, where he is scheduled to remain on vacation until July 29. He is then expected to return to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome until September.
Father Lombardi said
it remained to be seen whether the Pope would keep his two scheduled commitments: delivering an Angelus message in two parishes near Aosta on the coming two Sundays.
[Did he really say that? Come on! The Pope wouldn't cancel an Angelus appearance because of a broken wrist!]
In recent months, the Pope, who turned 82 in April, has appeared tired in some of his public appearances. But Benedict, a shy scholar, has kept up a public schedule, including an eight-day trip to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories in May.
About questionable journalistic practices, the Daily Telegraph of London had its correspondent in Perugia reporting on the Pope's accident and he filed a pretty long first story alleging the Pope ahd broken his wrist and twisted his ankle. The Telegraph has yet to correct the story.
L'Osservatore Romano is able to report on the Pope's little accident in tommorrow's issue at least up to Dr. Polisca's statement that the Holy Father would be returning home to Les Combes shortly but obviously went to press before the Pope left the hospital.
It does, however, tells us something of what the Pope did Thursday, when the picture below was taken.
A small incident stirs up
the Pope's vacation:
A right wrist fracture
after a fall
Translated from
the 7/18/09 issue of
A small incident has stirred up Benedict XVI's vacation in Les Combes, Val D'Aosta.
As reported in two communiques made by the Vatican Press Office after the Holy Father accidentally slipped in his room on Thursday night, he sustained an incomplete fracture of the right wrist.
In the morning, the Pontiff nevertheless celebrated his daily Mass and had breakfast before going to the hospital in Aosta.
According to second communique issued by Dr. Patrizio Polisca, the Pope's personal physician, in the early afternoon, the Holy Fahter underwent "reduction of the fracture and osteosynthesis under local anesthesia, with the application thereafter of a cast", his overall condition was good, and he was expected to go back to Les Combes the same day.
On Thursday afternoon, the Pope left the residence at Les Combes for a walk along the Pileo-Boregue-Leytin municipal road, accompanied by his private secretary, Mons. Georg Gaenswein, during which they prayed the rosary.
Then he stopped at the Chalet du Pape, a small wooden cottage in the locality called Crois du Boix (cross of wood). It was built by the agricultural and forest council of Introd at the initiative of the commune, the diocese of Aosta and the Salesian community of Les Combes. The furnishings of the cottage were executed by local artisans.
At the main chalet, not the one described above.
One thing quite obvious from all the media reports I managed to see in the past few hours is that hardly anyone - except thr Telegraph reporter who claimed the Pope also twisted his ankle - made more of the incident thatn it really was. And sensibly so.
(Of course, lella notes that inexplicably, Corriere della Sera, in its online report of the incident, left ite combox open, which soon attracted alll kinds of nuts and ill-willed people. Why they should have kept the combox open at all in such a situation is just stupid.)
And now, AP's Victor Simpson has even filed a situationer on the Pope's health that, all things considered, one may call positive. Certainly, no untoward morbid interest!
Pope has been remarkably healthy
since assuming papacy
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
ROME, July 17 (AP) - Despite his age and a
history of serious medical problems*, Pope Benedict XVI has been remarkably healthy during his four-year pontificate. He has kept to a busy schedule and traveled around the world.
Until breaking his right wrist in a fall in his vacation chalet in the Italian Alps on Friday, there have been no reported medical problems since he assumed the papacy in 2005.
"His general conditions are good," said his personal physician, Dr. Patrizio Polisca, in a Vatican medical bulletin issued after Benedict underwent surgery on his broken wrist.
Benedict, who turned 82 in April, said in a rare interview to German media in 2006 that "I've never felt strong enough to plan many long trips."
Since then, however, he has traveled to Australia, the United States, Brazil and most recently to two sub-Saharan African countries among his 12 foreign pilgrimages. While looking tired at times, he has always bounced back.
The most serious issue in his medical record was a hemorrhagic stroke he acknowledged suffering in 1991 that temporarily affected his vision, as well as a fall that knocked him unconscious in 1992. He has said he recovered without permanent damage from each incident.
{I have never been clear about a second incident, or whether it happened at all.]
Doctors in Aosta, Italy, where was treated after the latest fall, took care emphasizing that the fall was accidental and not the result of a sudden illness.
And Dr. Amedeo Mancini, the orthopedic surgeon who performed Friday's operation, said the pope would suffer no long-term effects from the fracture, and would be able to write and play the piano once the wrist heals. He said Benedict was an excellent patient.
It came as a surprise that Benedict chose this region near France for his vacation, moving from Bressanone in the Alps near Austria, where he stayed last year. The mountain trails are steep in Aosta, and Benedict is known to prefer a flatter landscape where he can pursue leisurely walks.
His predecessor, the late John Paul II, went on taxing mountain hikes in summer and skied in the winter before he was slowed down by Parkinson's disease.
*
['A history of serious medical problems' seems an exaggeration, since so far as is known before he became Pope, it has consisted at the mostof a transient stroke - technically called a TIA, for transient ischemic attack, in which temporary disturbance of blood supply to an area of the brain results in a sudden, brief decrease in brain function and symptoms of stroke which lasts less than 24 hours.
Not a real stroke, but it could lead to a real one unless it is properly medicated]. This took place in the early 1990s, when he was over 60, which is not unusual in men at that age. For that, he has reportdly been taking blood-thinning medication (most likely one aspirin a day), gping by what his brother once said in an interview. Aspirin minimizes the likelihood of a blood clot that could lead to a real stroke or other complications.]
In any case - enjoy the rest of your vacation, dearest Papino. Do dictate to GG if you need some writing done!
ALL OUR LOVE AND PRAYERS
TO OUR DEAREST PAPINO
AND AS ALWAYS, WE WISH YOU
AD MULTOS ANNOS, SANCTE PATER!
BTW, we must all thank Fr. Lombardi for the efficient way in which he managed the information flow today. He provided enough information in a timely manner to preclude unnecesary speculation. And I was pleasantly surprised to see a video on Fox News this afternoon that showed him when he announced the statements in his first communique in English - I am sure he did it in Italian, too - and he was very reassuring.
Meanwhile, more details are bound to emerge from this exciting six-hour news watch. Here are some from ANSA:
Benedict XVI was listed
as 'Unknown Patient 917'
AOSTA, July 17 (Translated from NASA) - To protect the secrecy of his medical records, the Holy Father was entered into the records of the Umberto Parini Hospital as 'Unknown Patient 917'.
[But what privacy when ANSA obviously managed to get a copy of his Operative Report????? And has now told the world that Patient 917 is the Pope? Thankfully, the Op Report is merely medical jargon for what his surgeon earlier told newsmen.]
This was gleaned from the Operative Report on the procedure undergone by the Pope to reduce a 'meta-epiphyseal distal incomplete fracture of the right radius bone'
[which would correspond to the right diagram of the two I posted earlier].
The procedure was performed under local anesthesia in Operating Room 1 of the emergency department of the regional hospital and lasted 25 minutes.
The surgical team was composed of orthoepdists Amedeo Mancini and Laura Mus, and anesthesiologist Marco Fondi.
The description of the procedure says that "under controlled digital fluoroscopy lasting 51 seconds, the fracture was reduced, after which osteo-synthesis was performed by introducing two Kirschner pins percutaneously."
[Digital fluoroscopy is an updated X-ray technique whicn enables detailed imaging of an internal body part which can be seen in real time on a monitor - in this case, the fracture was visualized so that the bone coudl be properly re-aligned.
Kirchner pins are flexible wires driven into the bone using a percutaneous microdrill that goes through the skin - sort of like a sophisticated staple gun. The pins secure the bone parts together to insure proper healing.]
Afterwards, the doctors checked the "stability of the reduction, which was found to be optimal, administered the necessary medications, and performed other post-procedure checks, before attaching a n immobilizing metacarpal device"
[the resin cast described to newsmen earlier by Dr. Mancini].
The Pope thanks his surgical team and the rest of the Emrgency Room staff. Dr. Polisca is right behind him.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/07/2009 22:52]